Pride and Security short stories.

Pride was on a mission, recently others from the Carnivora colony had gone missing, it started with a few disappearing then search parties looking for the missing people had also gone missing. He was on an official mission to find out what was happening! Well- it wasn’t exactly official, he didn’t really get explicit permission to do this per say, but Enthusiasm asked him if he knew anything! It was a weird question but he took that as them asking him to find information! So of course he decided to help! He didn’t understand why he wasn’t in any of the previous search parties; he was one of the best mages after all! The disappearances have been happening a bit further from the colony- in a place called the deadzone, spooky. He was approaching the area now, as he peeked his head in he saw a dark and damp cave. He entered the cave, his hair was standing on the edge. He made small steps forward as he came up against a puddle, he leaned down and sniffed it. Getting near the suspicious dark water made all his fur stand on end he reared back, staring at the puddle with wide eyes. Something about it was….Familiar? It was a weird feeling, seeing something so unusual and being struck with a sense of familiarity, like it was connected to something he knew. Quickly he made steps further into the cave, curiosity for what the feeling was driving him more than determination for finding out the cause of the missing people.

“Why hello there!” Came a voice behind Pride, he whipped around to see a large figure laying on a rock above him. As he got a better look at the figure it was, a cat? No it wasn’t a cat exactly. Its paws had elongated into a form similar to monkey hands and its tail was far too long to be a natural cat's tail. It was covered in shadows all over its body, it had long fur that seemed somewhat messy. It was grinning at him, looking as if it knew who he was.

“Who are you?” Pride asked, standing on edge as he watched this weird individual’s grin widen.

“Come on old friend! Do you really not recognize me?” It laughed. Pride blinked at the cat-thing, old friend? He didn’t have many friends. He furrowed his brow as he went deeper into thought, who could this be? He doesn’t remember being friends with a shadow monkey-cat. The creature's smile dropped as it looked at Pride deep in thought, unimpressed with him.

“You cuddled me a lot, name started with a P… You stayed at my place a lot.” Pride brightened up a lot.

“Polygraph! Wait- no I wasn’t old friends with him uhm.” The monkey-cat suddenly looked very offended, before continuing.

“Was called the shadow advisor-” “PHANTASCOPE?!” Pride shouted as he realized, the cat-monkey responded by looking blankly at the calico. Seemingly shocked it took him this long to figure it out. A smirk finally came across the shadow mages face.

“My Pride! For as close as we are it took you quite awhile! I thought you would’ve been the best at this!” He said, looking as if he was trying not to laugh. Pride bristled up at Phantascope.

“I am the best, it’s just the last time I saw you. You were more colorful and had less goop on you.” He said, gesturing to the cat. He once again took in the form of his old friend, looking again now that he knew it was somewhat similar to his old friend.

“What happened to you? Last I heard you died in a fire by Signal, now it’s seasons later and you look like this!” He said, confused. Its been so long since he last saw his friend, now he looks completely different! Why did he never contact him before? Phantascope grinned down at Pride, sliding off the rock and approaching him. ‘Was he always this tall?’ Pride knew he was a shapeshifter who could change his height but, he didn’t remember him ever being this much taller than him.

“Well Pride, how about I tell you. It’s quite a long story.” He said as he brushed up against Pride, as he made contact it felt as if some energy was being sucked out of him. All of his fur stood on end as he jumped away and stood defensively. What was that? He never felt that before when they cuddled! He stared at Phantascope with wide eyes, he seemed so much different then before. The air around him was so much more malicious than when he was around him before the fire. He had seen him upset but he never felt this dark. He suddenly felt as if he should leave. Suddenly finding the thing responsible for the disappearances didn’t seem as exciting, he should’ve at least asked Enthusiasm to come with him.

“While that is a uh! Great offer, I do think I should get going, I was on a walk before you know- I got business to attend.” He lied, hoping it wasn’t as obvious as it felt. Phantascope looked at him amused, and Pride was suddenly aware the monkey-cat was now standing in front of the exit. He wished the cat would move slightly so he could slip past without touching him again.

“That’s quite rude! You come into my home, forget who I am and now want to leave?” Phantascope replied with a grin, not moving. He didn’t seem upset, more of just amused at Pride. Pride felt slightly offended, Phantascope never treated him like this before. ‘Or if he did he was just better at hiding it.’ a voice growled in his head, Pride shook it off. Phantascope was the first friend he made after he became a mage, he would never be this rude. He convinced himself, something just happened to him that made him like this. Suddenly he remembered something he said.

“Your home? YOU! You were the one who caused the disappearances!” He shrieked suddenly on edge again. He didn’t want to believe this, Phantascope would neve- the cat responded by laughing at him.

“You just realized it! Gee you sure are worse then I remember” He said continuing to laugh. Pride felt his heart sink, he needed to get out now he was unsure if he would meet the same fate as the others, and he didn’t want to. He still needed to care for Fire and to be there for Ambition. He finally mustered up some courage, with a snarl he let some fire out and jumped past the cat. Hoping the fire would be enough to stop or atleast startle him for a bit so he could make his escape. After he made it past the cat, he continued running. Not looking back even as he felt a coldness behind him and Phantascope’s continued laughter. Finally he made it out of the deadzone, he continued running in the direction he came before finding Enthusiasm.

“There you are Pride! Where have you been?” The owl questioned, obviously concerned.

“Can’t talk now! Go!” He would explain when they got back to the safety of the colony, even though he was further from the deadzone and could no longer feel Phantascope’s presence, he still didn’t want to stop. He felt dread and sadness fill him, did his friend really turn into that? He had a lot of thinking to do.